WTN: Jenise buys and tastes a dry Riesling

[Jenise]

...from Austria.

2014 Peter Jacob Kuhn Riesling Trocken 'Jacobus'
Straw gold color. Promising nose and reisling flavors with lemon grass and a strong dose of coconut. It's satisfyingly absent of the sweetness I wanted to avoid, but it lacks energy on the palate. You kind of sit there and wait for that zing to catch up with the initial signals but it doesn't come, though the wine is by no means fat or flabby. $22 locally.

...from Austria..

Thanks for trying!

But are you sure about the Austrian part? I thought Kuhn was German, in the Rheingau.

[Jenise]

Wachau, Osterreich. That's Austria, no?

...NO IT'S NOT! Ach! I had two bottles in my hand, and thought I'd chosen the Austrian. I never looked closely at the bottle. It's German.

Wachau, Osterreich. That's Austria, no?

I think you mean Oestrich, which is a vineyard in the Rheingau. Kuhn is a German producer.

Wachau, Osterreich. That's Austria, no?

Yes, although this wine http://www.weingutpjkuehn.de/weinshop/?product=jacobus2014jacobusriesling-qualittswein-trocken-vdp-gutswein-075l1307l is from Germany, and the producer Peter Jakob Kuhn is from a town called Oestrich-Winkel, which is in Germany.

Does the bottle actually say Wachau?

[David M. Bueker]

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of the 2014 vintage. It's very inconsistent.

[Jenise]

Rahsaan...see my amended note above. I typed that answer and then asked myself, did I not buy the bottle I thought I did? So I headed downstairs to examine said bottle and the doorbell rang, it was my furnace repairman. And he just left so I"m only just now getting back to the mess I made. I'm really embarrassed.

Jenise, I see that Jacobus a "gutswein", which is the lowest VDP category, I think equivalent to a regional appellation like "Bourgogne" in Burgundy. However, it should be better than you describe.

David, you seem to concur with Mosel Fine Wines about the inconsistency of the 2014 vintage. That means that I should take special care in getting information if I make an internet order.

[David M. Bueker]

Yes - tread lightly in 2014. There are some lovely wines, and they are more classical in weight, but botrytis shows in spots, and it is not always clean.

Lots of fun here, must be the Washington air! I have never heard the phrase "straw gold"..can you be more specific Jenise?

[David M. Bueker]

It's the color of a hay bale Bob.

Lovely thanks David.

[Jenise]

Lovely thanks David.

Yes, exactly. Not clear or pale; and more importantly deeper color than I'd expect for a brand new riesling.

[Jenise]

Jenise, I see that Jacobus a "gutswein", which is the lowest VDP category, I think equivalent to a regional appellation like "Bourgogne" in Burgundy. However, it should be better than you describe.

It wasn't bad at all, Tim. It's biggest flaw was probably just not being quite what I expected--which, god knows, I have little right to have. But I can add that my description of it "lacking energy" was lifted from another note on CT--that was my issue too, but he said it better so I borrowed.

22 USD? It is not bad, but it is not worth that kind of money. Should be 12-14.

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

[Jenise]

22 USD? It is not bad, but it is not worth that kind of money. Should be 12-14.

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

Agreed. Quality issues aside, per a CellarTracker reviewer it sells for just 10 Euros on your side of the pond.

Yes - tread lightly in 2014. There are some lovely wines, and they are more classical in weight, but botrytis shows in spots, and it is not always clean.

Agree. Yearly, with my german wine buying group, I buy 30-40 bottles; last year only 12, and only from Donnhoff and Karthauserhof.
By the way, I've been told Mr. Bert Selbach, owner of Weins-Prum, is selling everything, vineyards too, and we have had a pristine price list to book 2015 bottles.

[David M. Bueker]

By the way, I've been told Mr. Bert Selbach, owner of Weins-Prum, is selling everything, vineyards too, and we have had a pristine price list to book 2015 bottles.

Would not shock me. There is going to be a lot of change in the next 10 years. Lots of estates in transition. The generational handover has been happening already, but it will pick up pace IMO.

Well to be precise (as someone that has moved tons of each by hand at the farm) a hay bale normally has a more greenish tinge and is used for feed for animals. Straw is made up of the dried stalks with very little nutritional value and is used as bedding material and as mulch.

Wine is often straw coloured (though occasionally they do have a greenish tinge).

Jenise, I suggest that you target a Qualitatswein level and you may find that a certain proportion of Trocken wines also seem to have left out a bit too much of the flavour along with the RS, so be prepared to taste a few. You may find that a Kabinett level wine in a 'normal' (i.e. not overly ripe) vintage might be your choice in the end, or a halbtrocken.

I'm not going to even try to get into German wine terminology. They make the trains run on time and are obsessive about defining everything so that it is in ordnung, yet they end up with a wine classification system that would make an Italian bureaucrat laugh. It was all overhauled in 2009, but by the EU wine people and I'm not sure that was a big help.

I'll do my part and try to haul out German wines whenever I can for you.

[David M. Bueker]

I'm not going to even try to get into German wine terminology. They make the trains run on time and are obsessive about defining everything so that it is in ordnung, yet they end up with a wine classification system that would make an Italian bureaucrat laugh. It was all overhauled in 2009, but by the EU wine people and I'm not sure that was a big help.

Actually most of the meaningful changes in German wine labeling have been through the VDP and its members. They are the ones who created the whole Grosses Gewachs thing.

PS - Jenise, I had been thinking of making up a German wine T shirt for years.

If you settle on one of the dry versions as your fave, I suggest that you get one done up based on this old one:

[Jenise]

Jenise, I suggest that you target a Qualitatswein level and you may find that a certain proportion of Trocken wines also seem to have left out a bit too much of the flavour along with the RS, so be prepared to taste a few. You may find that a Kabinett level wine in a 'normal' (i.e. not overly ripe) vintage might be your choice in the end, or a halbtrocken.

I've been at horizontal tastings of German wines in the long ago past--ten or twelve wines with several reps at every level in a good vintage, and my preferences in that situation were generally what might have been the third and fourth wines in the lineup, the fruitier Kabinetts and the driest spatleses. Producer-wise, Gunderloch, JJ Prum and Donnhoff always came out on top for me. I probably haven't changed much, or learned much! (obviously), in the years since. I enjoy them when I have them, but I just haven't formed the same attachment for Riesling that I have to categorically drier white wines. That's why this new-to-me area of deliberately dry, high-end Riesling is worth exploring.